Discovery Blocks of Learning

Early Learning Program Discovery Blocks of Learning

Our Discovery Blocks of Learning represent the core developmental and learning areas within the Early Learning Program.

Social & Emotional Development and Self-Care Skills

Our primary focus is on ensuring that every learning experience for a child involves their social and emotional growth.

This is a fundamental part of the early learning experience as it creates the foundation for all future learning. The Early Learning Teacher ensures that each child feels supported and encouraged to play and learn both independently and collaboratively within a group, to make friends, to manage their feelings and behavior and to learn to be respectful of themselves and others.

Self-care skills are basic yet critical elements of successful early learning. The Early Learning Teacher ensures that each child is developing age-appropriate self-help and problem-solving skills, such as sharing, utilizing verbal communication, setting up snack, using utensils, zipping, buttoning, snapping, and dressing. Our ultimate goal with practical life skill development is to ensure each child grows to feel more confident and independent in their abilities, and can perform these basic skills in their everyday environment.

Language & Literacy

Language and Literacy focuses on the basics of a child's development of personal and interpersonal communication skills and learning actively to listen and speak.

Literacy will involve an introduction to storybook reading, storytelling, poems, rhymes, phonics, and recognition of letters and sight words, writing letters, journaling, and the growth from the ability to identify pictures in books to reading comprehension. Literature will often be used to introduce themes that will be carried through all of our Discovery Blocks of Learning.

Math Discovery

Math is everywhere and is easily brought to life for children through real-world examples, interactive play, manipulatives, and teacher-led exercises.

Our goal is to introduce our early learners to the idea that math is a powerful tool to help us understand the world. Math concepts that will be introduced include: days, months, years, numbers, and recognition of shapes, and the sorting and writing of numbers. Additionally, they will explore: problem-solving and other basic concepts of math, including shapes, graphing, quantity and counting, money, weight and measurement.

Expressive Arts: Art, Music & Drama

Art

Art is used as a medium for learning and self-expression throughout our entire program.

Children will have the opportunity for hands-on play with various art materials and a number of artistic concepts. Through art, children will have opportunities to express themselves, experiment and make connections to early academic concepts.

Music

Music is taught weekly by our Early Learning Specialists but also infused throughout the program.

Children are exposed to live and recorded music, sing common children’s songs, and hear and learn classical and global music. They learn about tempo, rhythm, beat, repetition, sequencing, elementary musical note reading, and about different instruments and their sounds.

Drama

Drama is taught by our Early Learning Specialists.

It introduces the beginning skills of performance, speaking, singing, dancing, and choreography. The course culminates in a class production using movement and song.

Mandarin

Mandarin is taught daily by our Early Learning Specialists and provides children with a unique exposure to a second language early in their lives.

The ability to understand daily routines and speak simple words in Mandarin will be facilitated through song, movement, and conversation.

Movement

Movement is taught daily by our Early Learning Specialists.

In this class children learn that that being physically active is an important part of being a balanced person. In movement, children actively participate in a class that focuses on the development of age-appropriate gross motor skills, teamwork and sportsmanship. The class will include an introduction to nutrition as a part of a healthy active lifestyle, dance, sports skills, group games, and yoga.

World Discovery

World Discovery is the exposure to the early concepts of what we traditionally call Social Studies and Science.

At these young ages, children are just beginning to discover and understand who they are and the world in which they live. World Discovery begins with a child learning and sharing who they are in the world, their interests, and how and what they like to play with, and extends to understanding our family, our school, our community, city, state, and country and the larger world, holidays and important historical figures. We also examine our world with an introduction to learning about our bodies, the environment, seasons, weather, the earth, planets, geography, geology, plants, and animals.

STEM Discovery

STEM Discovery is taught weekly by our Early Learning Specialists who have a love and passion for all things STEM and know how to create age-appropriate, hands-on, STEM-based projects for early learners.

This weekly class incorporates the meaningful play principle, and children are exposed to "Materials and Tools" and "Engineering Design," two fundamental learning areas. Children investigate, innovate, build and use natural and manmade materials to explore age-appropriate science, technology, engineering, and math concepts.

Early Learning Milestones

We developed these social and academic milestones for our Early Learning Program to ensure that our children are learning and developing appropriately within our program. Through the guidance of the Early Learning Teachers, we know that our children will be set up for kindergarten success and beyond!